Photographic print dater



Patented Oct. 27, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,299,990 PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT DATER John Paul Jones, Fairmont, W. Va. Application September 27, 1941, Serial No. 412,647

2 Claims.

This invention aims to provide novel means for placing a date inscription, or other information, on a sheet of sensitized paper which is to be used in the making of a photographic print.

It is within the province of the disclosure to improve generally and to enhance the utility of devices of that type to which the present invention appertains.

With the above and other objects in view, which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed, may be made within the scope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 shows in top plan, a device constructed in accordance with the invention, a piece of sensitized paper being shown in place;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan of the lid.

In carrying out the invention, there is provided a casing C, including a box-like body I, provided in one of its side walls with a transverse recess 2. In the said side wall of the body I, a vertical guide bore 3 is formed, the bore communicating with the recess 2. The bore 3 opens upwardly, through the upper edge of the body I. At any suitable place in the body I, but spaced some dis tance from the upper end of the body, an opening 4 is fashioned.

The numeral 5 designates a socket, adapted to receive an electric lamp 6. A headed securing element I is used to hold the socket 5 on the bottom of the body I. A small, upper portion of the globe or bulb of the lamp 6 is transparent, but the major portion of the bulb is colored, preferably red, the red part of the bulb extending upwardly and downwardly with respect to the opening 4. The construction is such that the device may be used as a dark room lantern.

The side contact of the lamp 6 is made in the usual way, with the side wall of the socket 5. The central contact for the lamp is made by Way of the securing element 1, which binds in place, the inner end of a spring switch tongue 8, extended outwardly through an opening 9 in the side wall of the socket 5. The spring switch tongue 8 extends into the recess 2 of the body I, and is there provided with a terminal cap I0, made of insulating material. A switch operating member, preferably a rod II, is mounted for straight line reciprocation in the guide bore 3. The lower end of the rod II rests on the insulating cap I0, and the upper end of the rod is extended above the upper edge of the body I. A terminal I 2 is mounted in the bottom of the body I, underneath the switch tongue 3. The numeral I 4 marks an electrical circuit, one side of which is connected to the terminal I2, the opposite side of the circuit being connected to the socket 5. The switch tongue 8 is out of electrical contact with the socket 5, a piece of insulating material I5 accomplishing that result. It will be noted, from Fig. 2, that the lamp circuit I4 normally is open.

A lid I6 for the body I is provided, and has a depending oifset I'I, shaped to be received with reasonable closeness in the upper end of the body I. The lid I6 is freely removable from the body I and is not connected thereto by hinges or otherwise. This is a satisfactory feature, in that the lid can be taken off completely, to make adjustments that are necessary, both on the upper surface of the lid and on the lower surface thereof. A recess I8 is formed in the lower part of the lid I G, and in the upper part of the lid, alined slits I9 are fashioned, the slits being spaced apart at their inner ends and opening into the recess I8. On its under surface, the offset I! of the lid I6 has inclined track grooves, adapted to receive flanges on a slidable light baflie 2|, mounted to move, at the will of an operator, toward and away from the recess I8.

Headed shafts 22 are mounted in the lid I 6, and on the shafts, exposure disks 23 are mounted to rotate, the disks being located above the lid I 6. The exposure disks 23 preferably are made of opaque material, but they are provided with transparent inscriptions 24. If it is desired to date the sensitized paper (a sheet of which is shown at 25), one of the inscriptions 24 may give the year, the other inscription giving the month of the year. One of the inscriptions 24 is individual to one of the slits I9, and the other of the inscriptions is individual to the corresponding slit. The exposure disks preferably extend outwardly a little way beyond the edge of the lid I6, to the end that the disks may be rotated readily, thereby bringing the appropriate inscription 24 in place above the corresponding slit I9.

A retainer is mounted in the lid I 6, adjacent to one edge of the lid, and may include a screw 26, on which a wing nut 21 is threaded. The numeral 28 designates a plate, having an elongated slot 29 receiving the screw 26, the construction being such that the plate can be clamped down tightly, in an adjusted position, on the disk 23. The plate 28 has a straight inner edge 39.

The spring tongue 8 is spaced from the terminal l2, and the lamp circuit I4 is normally open. The spring tongue 8 raises the switch operating rod I 1 until its upper end is above the upper edge of the body I. The lid IE rests removably on the body I, but one edge of the lid is raised slightly, as shown in Fig. 1, by the switch operating rod H. The piece 25 of sensitized paper is placed on the lid [6, of paper coming in contact with the edge 30 of the plate 28. By tightening the wing nut 21, the plate 28 may be caused to grip the exposed disks 23, and hold them in any positions to which they may have been adjusted circumferentially. It may now be observed that the plate 28 exercises two functions, in that it serves as a paper stop and a disk grip. Owing to the provision of the slot 29 in the plate 28, the plate may be adjusted in the direction of the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, to the end that the printed inscription may be either within or without the field of the picture, as the operator may desire. The dark room lantern feature, hereinbefore attributed to the hole 4, perhaps is secondary in importance to the fact that, by means of the hole, the op-.

erator can ascertain as a glance, whether or not the lamp 6 is being lighted and extinguished.

When the sheet of sensitized paper 25 is in place, the operator pushes downwardly on the lid it. The switch actuating rod H is forced downwardly, the tongue 8 closes on the terminal I2, and the lamp 6 is lighted. The inscriptions 2A are illuminated, and corresponding inscriptions will appear on the sensitized paper 25. When pressure on the paper and on the lid i6 is relieved, the parts assume the position of Fig. 2, and the lamp circuit 15 is opened. The printing operation may be carried on with great rapidity.

If the paper is slow, light from the lamp 6 one edge of the piece may be received throughout the entire width of the recess l8: but if the paper is a fast paper, requiring less light, the baflle 2| is advanced in the track grooves 20, to cover so much of the recess 18 as the operator may wish.

The device is characterized by a simple structure, facilitating rapid manipulation and making repairs or replacements few and far between.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A device for printing information on sensitized paper, comprising a casing, a lid having an opening for the passage of light, a lightsource in the casing, a movable exposure member on the outer surface of the lid, and carrying light-printing indicia cooperating with the opening, a light-baffle on the inner surface of the lid and movable toward and from the opening, means for mounting the lid on the casing, for free and complete removal therefrom, to the end that the exposure member and the baiiie may be set whilst the lid is held in the hand of an operator, and is remote from the casing, and means responsive to the downward and upward movement of the lid for lighting and extinguishing said source, respectively.

2. A device for printing information on sensitized paper, comprising a casing, a lid having an opening for the passage of light, a lightsource in the casing, a movable exposure member on the lid, and carrying light-printing indicia cooperating with the opening, means for mounting the lid movably on the casing, means responsive to the downward and upward movements of the lid for lighting and extinguishing said source, respectively, and a clamp on the lid and engaging the exposure member, to hold it in adjusted positions, the clamp having a stop which the paper to be printed engages, thereby to determine the place on the paper where the printing is done.

JOHN PAUL JONES. 

